What if it were a church and not a Gay Night Club.

Quran 9.14- "Fight against them so that Allah will punish them by your hands and disgrace them and give you victory over them and heal the breasts of a believing people."

When Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center planned to burn a copy of the Quran in Gainesville, FL, a few years ago, I was ministering at a church a couple of miles away.  The whole area was in chaos.  Every agency in the Government and every news network seemed to have a presence near the church.  Access to the neighborhood around the church was restricted and if you knew what you were doing you avoided that area of town just because of traffic. 

I received phone calls at the office from people all over the U.S. who confused our church with DWOC.  But the call that was most distressing knew who we were, where we were, and that we were not DWOC.  It came from the city of Gainesville’s office of public safety.  They called to tell us that they had received a credible threat of acts of terror against churches in Gainesville.  We were advised to take appropriate measures.  When I asked for more information about the threat they said that they didn’t have any more information.  When I asked what they suggested that we do they told me that was not their area of expertise. 

We did make plans.  Thankfully, the action plan we put in place was not needed, but it was an exercise that opened my eyes to what an incredibly ‘soft’ target a church would be for a terrorist attack.

Not every Muslim immigrant is a terrorist, but the attack on the Pulse Night Club demonstrates that a lone attacker can be devastating.  This attacker was apparently motivated by a combination of Islamic teaching and homophobic/homohostile convictions.  The probability that an attacker will strike your church is remote.  With about 350,000 churches in America your odds are very low.  However, some where between fear mongering and naivety is prudence.  I am strongly suggesting that you speak with your leadership about a basic response plan to a shooter.  If you like, contact me and I will gladly share with you my experience and the preparations that we made.

To see the article, “The Problem of a Religious Shooter in a Secular Society” go to: http://beyondharan.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-problem-of-religious-shooter-in.html